The number of crimes against cultural heritage has increased again, figures are far from final

Since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, russia has committed 407 war crimes against the cultural heritage of Ukraine, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Kateryna Chuyeva said during a briefing.

“407 objects – these are monuments of cultural heritage and buildings of cultural institutions, including music schools, educational organizations, institutions located in cultural monuments or in modern buildings,” she said.

Crimes have been recorded in 13 regions of Ukraine and Kyiv City: Kharkiv region – 97, Donetsk region – 93, Kyiv region – 76, Chernihiv region – 38, Luhansk region – 32, Sumy region – 28, Zaporizhzhia region – 16, Zhytomyr region – 6, Kyiv City – 5, Kherson region – 5, Mykolaiv region – 5, Dnipropetrovsk region – 3, Odesa region – 2, Lviv region – 1. 

Religious buildings of different denominations have suffered the most. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the russians have destroyed or damaged 145 religious buildings, of which 51 are listed as historical, architectural, and urban monuments.

125 objects of cultural heritage were destroyed and damaged as a result of shelling by the russian occupiers, of which 21 are monuments of national significance, 97 are of local significance, and 7 are newly discovered objects of cultural heritage.

Also, 101 valuable historical buildings have been destroyed or damaged. 

According to the culture ministry, 45 memorial monuments in honor of notable personalities, 31 buildings of museum-reserve complexes, 87 cultural centers, theaters and libraries have also been destroyed. Some 10 objects have been completely destroyed.

In addition, archeological monuments are being destroyed by the movement of troops, the creation of protective structures, and by shelling.

Chuyeva said this is an incomplete picture of the damage because most of the destruction cannot be recorded physically, especially in cities that were completely destroyed, such as Volnovakha, Popasna, and Mariupol, where entire blocks of historical buildings were destroyed. In addition, the calculation of damages is complicated by the fact that a significant part of the destroyed or damaged objects are located in the war zone.

“When we talk about the calculations of our losses in conversations with international partners, with the World Bank, with other institutions, we are giving very preliminary figures. We include in our potential losses objects that were in territories where as we know there was severe destruction, but we have no direct access at this point to survey these territories,” she added.

In June, 388 russian war crimes against cultural heritage and 21 destroyed monuments of national significance were recorded. The Ministry of Culture records russian crimes against Ukrainian cultural heritage on a special site.

Source: Ukrinform

Photo: PAP / EPA / SERGEI ILNITSKY